In response to this: The Pedophile Who Wants to Get Me Fired, this: All Pedophiles Are not Criminals, or Check Your Dictionary, Please
The pedophile who wants me fired
By Rochelle E.B. Gilken | Tuesday, June 24, 2008, 02:14 PM
I received a hand-written letter in the mail today, marked ‘personal and confidential’ on the envelope.
Usually this kind of mail originates at the Palm Beach County Jail or some other similar institution.
But somehow this guy has avoided incarceration.
And he has decided to spend his time writing me a letter with several helpful points of advice, so I thought I would share them.
Here are some highlights:
“Rochelle, you need to be fired!!”
“Even if I were at a ‘nude beach’ and crawled over on my knees to a naked 9 year old boy and ‘stare’ at his penis only 1 inch away - it’s (sic) still would not be illegal. That’s just the law, Rochelle.”
“To help you out, Rochelle, there’s a local organization called NAMBLA (North American Man Boy Love Association) which is a civil rights organization that looks out for the best interests of young boys.”
And my favorite:
“The days of you dirty, yellow journalists are numbered. Shame!”
The point here is the letter-writer was angry that I described a sex offender on the run as a “dangerous pedophile.” He also took issue with my use of the word “leer” to describe the way this fugitive was looking between the cracks of a bathroom stall occupied by a young boy.
“How do you know it was a leer? Maybe it was a glance or a ‘look,” the letter-writer wrote.
Right.
He signed his name and phone number, but I think he may have made them up so I won’t write them. The zip code is 954.
***
Response:
By Mark
June 25, 2008 10:23 PM | Link to this
Rochelle,
While this guy is obviously an unfortunate "representative," I think his motivation for writing you was likely inspired by a sentiment in the "pedophile community" as regards, generally, the use of the word "pedophile" by the MSM - by most people, really.
While it appears that the context in which you used it was a correct one, in far too many cases it is used incorrectly. In the interest of truth, if not sensationalism and sales, journalists ought to educate themselves as to the very limited actual definition of the word.
Many pedophiles, and there are those who do not offend, ever, are offended that the MSM treats the condition (whether chosen or otherwise) of being a "pedophile" as an actual crime. However, when properly and honestly defined it is not, in fact, a crime to "be" a pedophile. It is a crime to molest children, to rape children, to kidnap children, regardless of whether one is or is not a pedophile.
The website, dictionary.com has a very accurate, very compact, and really, truthfully, complete definition of the word, so long as one does not add into that other things which are not always a part of the word, and therefore, do not belong in its definition.
For clarity, an example of the misuse of the word by the MSM is the commonly seen phrase, "suspected pedophile," which is better and more honestly rephrased as "suspected child molester, or etc."
Yes, oftentimes, pedophiles commit reprehensible, rightly proscribed, rightly prosecuted crimes against children. So do psychopaths and sociopaths who are not pedophiles. And those crimes are more than adequately defined by words outside of the word, "pedophile."
In short, this oversight, or intentional misuse of, or attempt to redefine the word pedophile by members of the media and others, like Perverted-Justice, for example, does a disservice, both to the cause of preventing crimes against children and to those many people who are indeed pedophiles, but not criminals - as to what it says for journalism, well, only each journalist can answer that question for him or herself.
All of that said, it would appear that your letter writer is definitely a pedophile, though not a very well-mannered or spoken one. Unfortunately, save perhaps this singular issue, there is no consensus in the pedophile community, if such a thing exists.
I hope this sheds some light on the thing.
Sincerely,
Mark